I dressed in my best clothes and made my hair look better than ever. My first high school party. I got an invitation to one of these cool parties where only the popular kids were invited, and the only bad thing about it was my sister warned me that this was a plan of the cool people to make fun of me. She was like all the week with the issue. But I couldn’t care less, Jon Thompson had risen socially.

The house was the typical class-media suburbian and the first floor was filled with people drinking and dancing to the beat of ‘Despacito’. They greeted me when I was walking through the hallway. They recognized me as one of their own.  

I had avoided this kind of thing practically all my life. I was usually so nervous that my stomach hurt and I felt pressure on my chest; however, that was water under the bridge. No more stomach ache, no more nerves, my body worked in my favor for the first time in my life and I wasn't willing to waste it.

"Hey, Jon. What's up, dude?" The captain of the basketball team said while he approached to bro-hug me.

"Hi, captain," I said with a proud smile. Two guys on the team approached us.

"Are you the new player? But I see you in my math class, you're a senior, are you?" One of them said, looking at me with confusion.

I understood his confusion. A senior who had never played before suddenly dominated the tryouts and getting a position in the team was not usual. "Well, I wasn't in good shape until the summer." I had been a runt for all my life, but from the last four weeks, my body and my skills were pure fire. But I couldn’t say that, I knew it could be normal. People wouldn’t believe it. I had to inspect my new flat belly each morning to believe it to be honest until a month ago.

"The other teams will go crazy when they see a senior about whom they don't have data. I can't wait to see the faces of the North Oaks idiots," the captain said with a big grin on his face.

My attention was drawn to a guy behind the captain. He was tall; dark hair, which made his olive skin look better; and green eyes which almost seemed to shine. He looked older than us, maybe a college student. He was dressed in a pair of blue pants and a shirtless tank top which let you see his fit shape and a long tattoo from his shoulder to his right hand. All his arms were filled with branches and roots from a tree. I’m not usually into tattoos. I guess I found the exception that proves the rule. To Summarize, he was freaking hot and he was heading towards us.

He approached us, passing between the captain and a player like they weren’t there. "Can I talk with you in private?" He said with a deep voice which gave me goosebumps. The impression of a gorgeous guy who was looking at me with an impassable face, ignoring the rest of the people in the room was too much for this bisexual seventeen-year-old guy.

"Of course," I said with a high-pitched voice. “Sure,” I said correcting my tone, and followed the guy without saying goodbye to my new teammates. My mind was totally lost.

“Come with me,” he said when we were outside of the house.

There was something about him that made me feel good for doing what he told me. It’s as if someone was screeching my back. I followed him to a dusty way in the back part of the house. There were many cars parked badly in there and more than one had a couple inside. 

"How do you feel?" He asked without turning back.

"Good, I guess," I said doubtfully. It was an unexpected question.

"Anything weird lately?"

"Ehh, no. Should there be?" I know I’m terrible at flirting.

"Maybe. You suffered an animal attack a month ago."

He spoke to me in a dark tone. He made me feel uncomfortable. For the first time, I thought about the situation and maybe it wasn’t a good idea to go alone with a stranger, but the desire to follow him was greater than my other feelings. Following him was the right thing to do for every fiber of my being except my common sense.

"I do. But it wasn't a big deal. How do you know? My name wasn't in the article." The local news had written a short article about a wolf of something similar bit me when I was camping with my father and sister. The journalist tried to do all the beef possible but there wasn’t anything guzzy, after all, I had only needed disinfectant and a bandage for like one week.

"I have my own sources." Again this dark tone. I had the sensation that he wasn’t telling me the truth. I started to feel all my muscles tense and a lot of heat in my back as if I had been in the gym too time and my muscles were starting to feel the pressure of the exercise.

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"Are you a journalist?"

He didn't answer. I looked around and noticed we weren't near the house. I wasn't aware of how much we had walked until that moment. We were on a secluded road. There was a black van on the side of the road. It looked expensive with a luxury trim level.

Suddenly, the discomfort of before started to turn into pain. I was starting to feel like a million needles stuck in my skin. "I don't feel well," I said kneeling to find balance. He turned back and looked at me with a disgraceful look, looking down almost immediately when I looked into his eyes. Then he grabbed me by my shirt, lifting me as if I weighed nothing, and throwing me inside of the van. He closed the door and I heard the motor start.

The cabin of the van was separated by a black curtain and the back part was a mattress with some drawer below and a small sink on the opposite side of the door. I was curled up in the small part of the wood floor between the front part and the bed. I tried to get up but my body didn't respond as it should, and the hard turnings didn’t help either. The pain increased.

"Please, I need a hospital," I said with a low voice which seemed like a whisper. The best I could get with so much pain.

"You will be okay. The first time is painful but it happens soon."

"What do you mean with 'the first time'? What the hell is happening to me?"

He didn't answer, so I looked for my phone. It was in my pants pocket and I regretted those thin jeans with all my heart. I finally grabbed it but before I could unblock it, the guy who I had followed to a dark and remote road took it with his right hand through the small space between the front seats.

"Please, I only wanna go home. Don't hurt me," I said about crying.

"You will be okay. Most people would be grateful for what is happening to you.”

A strong painful sensation left out of breath for an eternity. The trip was long and jolting. I tried to memorize the turns, but I couldn't. I wasn't sure where we were going.  He parked after a while. The most terrible scenarios crossed my mind. I didn't come out unhurt in any of them. He opened the door.

"Are you crying?" he asked. He helped me to sit against the back of the front seats. "Shit, I'm doing this terribly. I'm not gonna hurt you."

"Please, let me go. I'm not gonna tell anyone that you drug me." More tears started to fill my eyes. In part because of the pain, in part because I was terribly frightened.

"I didn't drug you. You are one of us now.."

"One of us?" I asked.

He looked at the van outdoors. We were in a place in the forest. The moon was full and perfectly in line with our view.

"I was the one who bit you the last full moon." He looked at me and his green eyes shined like a traffic light. My first instinct was to move away and for my misfortune fall from the van. "Call down. It's not a bad thing, you are now like me. Stronger, faster, and more powerful than any human," he said while stepping close to me.

"I'm not like you. I'm not a monster," I yelled from the cold and wet ground.

He held a hand mirror up to my face. My normally brown eyes were bright with an intense yellow color. "We aren't monsters, and yes, we aren't the same but now you're more similar to me than your stupid human friends. Let me help you to undress." I used all my remaining forces to run to the forest. It was useless, after some steps, the pain made me fall again, and rolled onto the ground. All my muscles stretched harder and my bones hurt like they were breaking one and another time.

"Idiot. This is gonna happen, whether it's your wish or not." He took off his shirt and jeans. I looked away, terrified by the situation. My brain wasn't thinking, my primal instinct was to run away. But it wasn’t possible in my state.

"The boy has lost faith in salvation. However, he doesn't know he is close to a metamorphosis, a change that takes a turn all his life," a deep and masculine voice said. 

I looked around the best my pain let me. My kidnapper was next to the van closing the door, he was naked. He couldn't be who was talking but there was not anyone else around. The pain passed from my muscles to my heart, which was beating like a race-car motor. My vision was blurry.

"The heart is the first to change. He was ready to turn the boy into the beast. The boy shouts in pain. The process is less than a few seconds, however, it feel like an eternity to him. Dark brown fur with gray spots, yellow eyes, and two short wings. His other nature taking form finally. He is covered in torn fabrics, which is trying to remove with his fangs.

A black jet beast with small white spots approaches him and helps him to rid up the remaining fabric. The black beast pressed its head against the newborn cub, leaving its essence. When the ritual is complete, both run to the forest with the black wolf leading the way. They play and run, enjoying the release of their instincts. 

In the middle of the night, both are on a mountain, the black beast is leading the way and the cub follows him. Suddenly, the cub raises its snout looking at the sky, looking at me, and..."

"Who are you?" The moon changed color, turning into an intense lapis lazuli blue.